User:Eehenderson/Nashville's Capitol Hill Urban Renewal Project

= Nashville's Capitol Hill Urban Renewal Project = Nashville’s Capitol Hill redevelopment project, which began planning under the Housing Act of 1949, aimed to increase the area’s attractiveness by getting rid of the “disgraced” slum housing and creating a “new look and a new outlook” that expanded the central business district, invested in commercial facilities, improved street layout, and exemplified the monumentality of Tennessee’s State Capitol. Pre-urban renewal, the slum housing was considered to be Nashville’s “most depressed area” and was described as having “wretched dwellings, dingy alleys and crumbling pavements." The Tennessee Capitol Hill urban renewal plan was the United States' first redevelopment project officially financed by U.S. Congress and was described as the biggest slum clearance project in the American South.

Planning and the Product
Based off newspapers at the time, key stakeholders in the project's planning was the Nashville Housing Authority, specifically John Acuff, who was the Nashville Housing Authority's engineer and assistant director for Nashville's urban renewal, Mayor Ben West, and more.

The preliminary studies and plans by the Nashville Housing Authority (NHA) and the City Planning Commission were completed in 1949 and the Division of Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment of the Housing and Home Finance Agency in D.C. approved NHA’s application for financial assistance in planning the project in 1950. Nashville’s City Council authorized the project in April and May 1950 and issued $1 million in General Obligation bonds for the preliminary costs a year before.

To give an idea of the geographic scale and location of the project, about 26 acres were acquired by the State at the top of Capitol Hill in 1952. Next to this property on three sides was about 67 acres of land; the boundaries of the area were Third Avenue from Cedar St north to the railroad, Charlotte Avenues on the south, the railroad tracks on the north and a line just west of Tenth Avenue.

One of the obstacles for planners was the steep hillside with thin roads that contributed to downtown traffic. Because of this planners believed that slum clearance and construction of new roads would better travel downtown, as well as monumentalize the Capitol building.

There was a family relocation plan in place for those that were to be displaced. In 1952, six of the seven NHA project to provide housing were underway. To justify displacement, it was asserted that the program would produce a net housing gain because more dwelling units would be built than clearance of all eight sites—referencing other urban renewal projects that involved clearance—would remove. However, single-person residents were not eligible for placement in NHA projects. Eventually, the residential and commercial slums around the Capitol were razed.

The project took ten years to turn into the “showplace that has attracted an estimated $50 million in investment capital." In 1968, the James Robertson Parkway was described as a tree-lined four-lane state that circled one side of the hill, which stood “like an imposing fortress overlooking Nashville." The street had motels and modern offices along it, and near the top of the hill was a giant civic auditorium, apartment buildings, and a public parking garage beneath the hill.

Local and National Attitudes
The majority of supporters with a positive attitude about urban renewal were outsiders and those in positions of power. The Nashville Banner tended to shine an upbeat, optimistic light on redevelopment—stating changes that would happen and often quoting those that were enthusiastic about the project; one article published in April 1962 was even titled “Nashville Stands in the Forefront of the Municipal Modernization Today.” The Capitol Hill project was being discussed at a national level; the Albuquerque Times said that when they visited in 1968, and they were “amazed by what they had seen in Nashville, a hallmark city for Urban Renewal." One 1962 paper in Spokane, Washington asserted that “[Capitol Hill] has fired the imagination of writers and civic leaders over the country."

Those that raised questions about the plan were those being displaced and people of color. The Tennessean newspaper provided more articles with an analytical lens on urban renewal—talking with those living in the Capitol Hill and Edgehill areas that would be displaced. For example, Looby, a black city council member, worried that the Capitol Hill project would “eliminate the colored downtown business section” and expressed this to the planners. Another individual expressed hesitation about urban renewal programs because it might lead to future projects being accelerated; the implication being that these projects might not be thought out or well planned.

There was a belief that all the housing, urban renewal, and highway locations would create community-wide issues if planners did not communicate with the people living in the neighborhoods of change. On May 1, 1952, the Chattanooga Times reported that Nashville City Council officially approved slum clearance and that a lawsuit might be filed because the black business district would be razed and that the black community did not approve of “confiscation of their real estate for resale to others after being redeveloped by NHA." Additionally, Reverend J.M. Granbery and a dentist, both black people living and working in the Capitol Hill area, beseeched that the church and dentist property not be removed. The dentist asking them not to get rid of “[his] life’s work."

According to many people across the nation, the Capitol Hill area project was seen as a success because of its attractive monumentality and new businesses. The failures that seemed to be ignored was the alienation of resident’s concerns pre-clearance, lack of explanation and clarification, and the destruction of black businesses and communities.